Month: April 2015

Many years ago, when I was a student at The College of New Rochelle’s School of New Resources, I had the opportunity to read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. The book deals with issues such as race, society and identity. I was deeply moved while reading the book, and it made me think about how the issues described in the book could be applied to persons with disabilities or any other group struggling for their right to dignity. That, along with an experience described in the next paragraph inspired me to write the poem Invisible Woman.

One day while paying for groceries, there was a woman ahead of me in line with her husband. She appeared to be afflicted by some type of palsy, and after checking out, she had a seizure. Her husband did his best to comfort her and escort her out of the store, but the clerk snapped, “People like that should be kept at home.” I was mortified to think anyone would think they have the right to determine if another individual is a valid member of society, and if their presence should be allowed.

That sparked me to write this poem based on my own observations as a late-deafened woman and the sometimes insensitive treatment of persons with disabilities:

Invisible Woman

Your eyes shift downward, or you look away,

I understand your predicament, you don’t know what to say.

You say it’s scary,…to think it could happen to you.

And if it did, you wouldn’t know what to do.

It’s okay, –glance at the evidence of my deficiency, when I look away.